An adventure into the Panasonic GX85/80 begins - and a look at the Leica Nocticron for Micro Four Thirds

[Robin Billingham]

On my gx80 the lcd screen dims after 20 seconds or so, I can't seem to find an option to turn this off (I tap the touch screen to make it go brighter again)... I'm probably being really dum but how do I stop this happening ?

[DThornton]

Here is the Panasonic GX85 contrast vs Canon 70d. With +4 on the panasonic it matches close to the Canon

[mercer]

1 hour ago, Robin Billingham said:

On my gx80 the lcd screen dims after 20 seconds or so, I can't seem to find an option to turn this off (I tap the touch screen to make it go brighter again)... I'm probably being really dum but how do I stop this happening ?

I thinks it's under the gear setting, under display or LCD... but I'm going completely from memory. 

[Vesku]

How can GX85 (and G7, G85) be so much cleaner in high iso than the GH4. DXOmark scores GH4 sensor in high iso better.

[toxotis70]

how can we bring Canon colors in GX80-85  ?

[John Matthews]

7 hours ago, Vesku said:

How can GX85 (and G7, G85) be so much cleaner in high iso than the GH4. DXOmark scores GH4 sensor in high iso better.

That's because DXO is full of horsepoo... and always has been. I can't help thinking that there's someone's eccentric uncle spitting out random numbers atop of a building paid for by camera manufacturers. They've got a serious racket going!

[Vesku]

The old GH4 seems to have more dynamic range in video than GX85, G7 and G85. It has more noise in high iso but it has not so aggressive NR so it is not smoothing details as much. Pure sensor noise is quite close in RAW photos.

 

[jonpais]

Any color comparisons between the GH4 and the GX85 that don't involve a bowl of fruit?

[Vesku]

I think the colors are close. GX85 is more contrasty and GH4 captures little more gamut and dynamic range.

[Inazuma]

9 hours ago, John Matthews said:

That's because DXO is full of horsepoo... and always has been. 

This is true. I first noticed it when I had a Panasonic GX7 and a Sony a6000 in my possession a couple years ago. There was no real DR or noise advantage to either of them despite DXO's score.  And you can see for yourself with dpreview's tools: Noise / DR 

[Vesku]

Has anyone used the "4k photo" feature to record 4k video files? It has some advantages compared to normal 4k video like auto iso in M and iso limiter.

[John Matthews]

14 hours ago, Inazuma said:

This is true. I first noticed it when I had a Panasonic GX7 and a Sony a6000 in my possession a couple years ago. There was no real DR or noise advantage to either of them despite DXO's score.  And you can see for yourself with dpreview's tools: Noise / DR 

Interesting results. I think the two main ingredients for better noise performance in photos are bigger sensor and more megapixels. Also, they shouldn't be compared at 100% unless they are the same number of megapixels. At 100% on a screen, the Sony looks worse; yet, the Sony probably would perform better on paper since it has a slightly bigger sensor and 8 more megapixels. Still, DXO got the GX7 wrong, especially compared to other MFT cameras. Also, how is it possible that the GX7 has better DR and Color depth than the GX80 according to them. I call BS.

9 hours ago, Vesku said:

Has anyone used the "4k photo" feature to record 4k video files? It has some advantages compared to normal 4k video like auto iso in M and iso limiter.

In my tests, it also has the trade-off of  more moiré. You do get some camera-setting advantages and multiple aspect ratios which is interesting but not for me if it means more moiré.

[Vesku]

1 hour ago, John Matthews said:

In my tests, it also has the trade-off of  more moiré. You do get some camera-setting advantages and multiple aspect ratios which is interesting but not for me if it means more moiré.

In my GH4 there is no more moire in 4k photo video but it uses 100% sensor crop. GX85 down samples a bit. Can it have different NR or processing for 4k photo? The codec is similar.

[John Matthews]

49 minutes ago, Vesku said:

In my GH4 there is no more moire in 4k photo video but it uses 100% sensor crop. GX85 down samples a bit. Can it have different NR or processing for 4k photo? The codec is similar.

I believe it's 0-255 in 4k photo rather than 16-235 in normal video mode.

[Vesku]

7 minutes ago, John Matthews said:

I believe it's 0-255 in 4k photo rather than 16-235 in normal video mode.

Yes 4k photo is 0-255. That would be a good reason to use 4k photo in GX85. You can get 256 shades/channel compared to 219/channel. Finer gradations and better grading source.

Other than that it uses the same 100Mbs codec. Audio is 128kb. I dont know if the GX85 normal video has better audio bitrate. GH4 has 1.5Mbs uncompressed audio so the 4k photo 128kb is a drawback.

[markr041]

Ok, tired of radical in-camera settings and attempts to make Panasonic images look like those from other cameras? Want to see the default images the camera delivers with no adjustments in post, at night, with the Nocticron? No, well happy holidays anyways:

 

[Stanley]

1 hour ago, markr041 said:

Ok, tired of radical in-camera settings and attempts to make Panasonic images look like those from other cameras? Want to see the default images the camera delivers with no adjustments in post, at night, with the Nocticron? No, well happy holidays anyways:

 

Thought some of those skin tones looked a bit plasticy.

Apart from that it looked great.

[webrunner5]

36 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Thought some of those skin tones looked a bit plasticy.

Apart from that it looked great.

LMAO.

[Michael Ma]

Nocticron, check

Night, check

Lots of sources of light, check

Bokeh balls, ????

[Vesku]

5 hours ago, markr041 said:

Ok, tired of radical in-camera settings and attempts to make Panasonic images look like those from other cameras? Want to see the default images the camera delivers with no adjustments in post, at night, with the Nocticron? No, well happy holidays anyways:

 

Nice clean low light videos. Can you remember how high iso you used with this bright lens? 400? 800?